New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-07-13
Cheap Food for Hogs.

Cheap Food for Hogs.
The average western hog is hall
starved during the first half of its exist
ence and stuffed during the remaining
halt. An entire litter of pigs are al
lowed to suckle their dam as long as
she gives any milk. The supply grad
ually diminishes as the creatures in
crease in size and require more food
It generally happens that the stronger
drive or push away the weaker ones,
and that they remain OF diminished
size all their lives. After pigs are
weaned the larger ones seek to monop-
Ollie the feeding trough, and are FREE
quently successful in doing so. Till
corn is ready to harvest hogs on most
farms find it difficult to get enough to
eat, and after the corn is put in crib
farmers find fault with their hogs be-
cause they do not eat enough. The
gain Of most hogs in summer is very
small. At the time when milch COWS
are giving twenty quarts Of milk per
day colts and sheep are growing rap
IDLY, and young cattle are showing a
steady gain of six pounds per week,
pigs on many farms are barely .shold-
ing their own. = 1t is the time when
they should rapidly gain in weight
like other farm animals.
the western states farmers put so
much reliance on corn for feeding hogs
that they often neglect to raise other
kinds of food for them. They may
know that an acre in common red or
mammoth clover will produce more
hog food than an acre in corn, and
they are certainly aware of the fact
that the animals will harvest the clover
if they are. given the opportunity. But
the cost OF fencing the hog pasture or
the trouble of cutting the clover pre-
vents the pigs from having the food
they want They are accordingly kept
on o short allowance OF food during
the time it is the most abundant. If
corn was not so abundant in the west
ern states, and was not SO generally
relied upon for making pork, it is like
ly that hogs would be better supplied
with food during. the growing season.
In England and Germany, where no
corn is produced, and in Canada, where
but little is raised, hogs gain faster
during warm weather than they do
here, for the reason that they are bet
ter supplied with proper food. They
grow clover, peas, tares, roots, pota-
toes, mill-stutfs, and oil-cake. That
keeping hogs on small rations during
part of the year and then stufing them
with dry corn produces injurious effects
on than, ic cd,
very little is done by most farmers to
avoid the evils complained OF. Our
hogs receive very little attention dur
ing the summer, chiefly because their
owners are too busily engaged in rails
ing corn to feed to them after the cold
weather sets in. In the meantime the
hogs are getting up a good appetite by
rigid course of fasting, and are pre-
pairing to lay on fat and contract the
cholera.
The cheapest way to keep hogs dur
ing the summer is to provide pastures
seeded to clover, orchard, and blue
grass. The hog bynature is grazing
animal, and will not only sustain life,
but gain in weight, if it has an oppor-
tunity to eat suitable forage crops. If
farmer is not SO situated that he can
enclose and seed land for pasturing
his hogs, he can, at least fence in a
large yard and keep it supplied with
food that costs less than corn and is
better for the animals that eat it.
Hogs will do well on green, tender
grass and clover cut and thrown into
their yards. Pea vines, fodder corn,
pumpkins, and squashes will also be
readily eaten. Flax seed. if ground or
cooked, forms a valuable food to be
eaten in connection with green fodder.
An occasional feed of corn is good,
but very little will be required to keep
hogs in growing condition if they are
well supplied with the cheaper articles
referred to.-Chscago Times.